Chapter 7
Winter’s tears began to fall just as Valdrin emerged from the assessment chamber.
In an instant, his Alpha presence flooded the corridor as he positioned himself between them, at threatening growl rumbling from his chest. “What did you do to her? She’s weakened, and you dare?”
Ravenna watched with bitter amusement. The mighty, controlled Alpha, undone by a few tears. He hadn’t even scented for truth, just instinctively marked her as aggressor.
This was her mate. The wolf she’d once loved with her whole being. Her chest constricted as if +aught in a silver trap.
“Alpha, please,” Winter’s voice trembled sweetly. “Sister only spoke of the ring. Don’t blame her.”
“The moon ritual is set,” Valdrin’s face darkened. “Your petty games won’t stop it. I won’t let anything threaten Winter’s healing.”
He assumed she meant to sabotage the heart ritual by agitating Winter. But Ravenna offered no defense. What use were words when Valdrin’s ears were deaf to any voice but Winter’s?
She retreated silently to her healing chamber. Only her moonweave designs remained faithful now. She’d dreamed of seeing them worn at the Great Pack Gathering, and fortune had granted her next year’s invitation. But fate’s cruelty meant she wouldn’t live to see it.
She worked until the healing herbs drew her toward sleep, her design scrolls scattered around her as consciousness faded.
She woke to rustling sounds and found a young pup defacing her sacred designs, childish scratches destroying the careful patterns she’d woven.
Ravenna lunged forward, gripping the pup’s wrist. “What are you doing!”
The pup startled, lifting her face a mirror of Winter’s features. Sweet, Winter’s daughter.
“You made my mother cry, you bad wolf!” Sweet snarled, her high–pitched howl piercing like silver shards. “I’m punishing you for her!”
Kavenna stared at her ruined work, seasons of craft destroyed. Pack laws about pups forgotten in her rage. “Who gave you permission to touch my designs? Didn’t your mother teach you to respect others‘ sacred work?”
Sweet’s cries grew louder, more theatrical. “Help! She’s going to hurt me!” “Alpha Valdrin!
Grandfather! Help me!”
Within moments, her father and Valdrin burst in, their combined strength throwing Ravenna back against the stone wall. Her head cracked against it, vision blurring, the sharp scent of blood filling
her nostrils.
Young Ash, scenting Sweet’s distress, turned on his mother with hands extended: “Bad Mother! Why did you hurt Sweet?”
Between sobs, Sweet whimpered, “I just wanted to tuck her furs closer while she slept. I don’t know why she got so angry. She tried to attack me!”
was so scared… I thought she would kill me.”
Her father’s Alpha power exploded: “Ravenna! You dare raise a hand against a pup?”
Ravenna remained silent. She touched the back of her head, fingers coming away red with blood.
Her father didn’t notice, yanking her head back by her hair: “Is this how I taught you to behave? Attacking an innocent pup!”
The pain made her vision swim, but it was nothing compared to the ache in her soul.
Forced to bare her throat in submission, blood trickling down her neck, Ravenna’s laugh was hollow – the sound of a wolf with nothing left to lose. “Father,” her voice carried all the bitterness of seven years of rejection, “we both know the truth. Even if I swore on the Moon Goddess herself, would you believe me over her?“.
She met each of their hostile gazes, one by one her father’s rage, Valdrin’s coldness, Ash’s hatred. “Would any of you ever take my word over Winter’s precious pup? When have you ever chosen me?
Chapter 8
“Still spinning your webs of deceit, Ravenna?” Valdrin’s words held the bite of winter frost. “We all witnessed the truth with our own eyes.”
A broken laugh escaped Ravenna’s throat as her gaze settled on Sweet, watching the pup peek through her theatrical tears. “So be it then. Yes, I attacked the precious pup.”
What use were denials to a wolf already marked guilty by her own blood?
Her father’s Alpha power erupted, claws extending as his rage peaked. The air crackled with lethal
intent.
Valdrin’s hand shot out, catching the former Alpha’s wrist. His own power rose to meet her father’s, though Ravenna saw through his show of protection.
He wasn’t defending her – he was safeguarding his precious heart donor. Now that the ritual date was set, he couldn’t risk any damage to his prize.
With a low growl, Valdrin herded her enraged father from the chamber, leaving only himself and Ash with Ravenna.
“They’re just designs,” Valdrin’s voice was cold. “Why react so violently over such paper?”
Ravenna’s body trembled. Just designs? These were her life’s work, her passion, her soul poured into every pattern! To him, they meant nothing.
Suddenly, the absurdity of it all struck her, and her laughter turned to tears. So this was her worth to them – less than nothing.
She clutched her chest, feeling real, physical pain. So this was how it felt when a wolf’s spirit truly shattered.
Valdrin’s mask of control slipped as her distress filled the air with the scent of breaking spirit. He reached for her with false gentleness, “Control your wolf, Ravenna. These are just designs. Let the matter go.”
Control?” The word tore from her throat like a feral howl. Something primal and ancient snapped within her that final thread holding back years of suppressed rage.
Her weakened wolf surged with one last burst of desperate strength as she launched herself at him.
CET OUT OF MY SIGHT!”
The
The chamber erupted in chaos as she unleashed her fury, sending sacred crystals and healing stones. flying like shrapnel. Her voice rose to a savage snarl that shook the stone walls: “ALL OF YOU – OUT!”
Valdrin backed away, his Alpha instincts warring between dominance and caution. Though his eyes
blazed with dangerous warning, he retreated. Even he knew better than to challenge a wolf with
nothing left to lose.
Night had fallen when he returned, finding her rage burned down to cold ashes.
“The ritual,” he announced, “will take place in ten days.”
Ravenna sat motionless, her silence more telling than any response.
“We meant to wait for your recovery, but given your… instability, ten days seems best.” He watched her carefully, searching for reaction.
She merely nodded, her acceptance almost unsettling in its serenity.
Relief flickered across his face. “I’ll conduct the ritual myself,” he added softly. “You won’t feel any pain.”
Something in his gentle tone made her look up, her hollow face ghostly in the moonlight. “How kind of you,” she whispered, each word dripping with bitter ice.
Valdrin fell silent. Ravenna had grown so thin, her cheeks hollow, her lips bloodless.
“Valdrin, have you considered..
She lay there, the last spark of defiance flickering in her dead eyes. “Valdrin, have what if this time, I truly die?”
He froze. For the first time, real fear touched him.
But his rational mind quickly reasserted control. “The Moon Goddess’s rules are clear. You can’t truly die before completing your Trial. Don’t try to manipulate me.”
The final spark in Ravenna’s eyes died, replaced by emptiness. This was her last attempt.
No wolf was fool enough to keep offering their heart after it had been repeatedly torn out. At least, she wouldn’t be that fool anymore.
Soon, Ravenna would vanish from his life completely.
Silence filled the healing chamber.
Valdrin watched her tears fall, feeling an inexplicable ache in his chest. But he pushed it down,
telling himself this was temporary.
After the ritual, everything would return to normal. He would make amends. Ravenna would return to him, as she always did. She would live again. They would have another chance.
Chapter 9
